Should I Be Worried With The Performance Of My Funds This Year?

cloud_dog

Reaper wrote: »

Perhaps the only thing I would do different is to not add any more to the Global Resources as I feel the sector is past it's peak. But that's just one view and I'm sure you would find no difficulty finding people arguing the opposite.

Here's another......... I hope not (not yet anyway)

sorcerer

I am in the same boat, I am seeing my profits disappear, and I am glad for this post to put some perspective on the whole thing. I have a 15-20 year outlook on my portfolio, investing every month.

jamesd

mr_fishbulb wrote: »

My S&S ISA is made up of a lot of high risk funds. I don't really mind that they are dropping; that's the nature of the high-risk beast, but because it seems to be nearly all of them are dropping I thought I'd post up here for a sanity check.

It's sane enough but if you're worried after such modest drops it's a possible sign that your investments are above your real risk tolerance.

Personally I'm waiting for the time I decide it's right to money £9k from a cash ISA and make this year's S&S contribution. Getting interesting now, though still not back to last year's lows.

Even with a high risk tolerance you can take a view that now is a good time to reduce the risk tolerance of the investments if you like.

Ximian

dunstonh wrote: »

You need to be careful about micromanaging them and worrying about short term trends. If you follow it that closely then you will always worry when there is a drop. Just let them do what you know they are going to do.

Good advice there as that is exactly what I was doing a few months back to see how my funds were doing, I got into a habit of logging in daily and seeing drops of anywhere from £30-£50 per fund. I only log in around once a week now, I'm hoping to ride it out and see what happens during the next two years.

mr_fishbulb

jamesd wrote: »

It's sane enough but if you're worried after such modest drops it's a possible sign that your investments are above your real risk tolerance.

Nah, it's all good. I never count this money in any of my budgeting so it could all go and I won't have any problems (I would be slightly annoyed though )

It's good to hear everyone's comments - thanks all.

purch

I'm a big fan of micromanaging and short term trends, but maybe that's just me

mr_fishbulb

Up 0.01% this evening. I'm back in business!

RobStaffs

mr_fishbulb wrote: »

Up 0.01% this evening. I'm back in business!

:beer::beer:

Loughton_Monkey

Most of all this is 'psychology'.

I tend to watch my funds every day. I faithfully watch each daily movement. Gained almost £2,000 today! But small comfort given what they have lost over the olast 6 or 7 weeks!

I am usually on an extended 2 month holiday May - July. [delayed this year for petty reason with which I will not bore you]. When on holiday, my normal habit is to forget them, basically. Maybe keep an eye on FTSE whenever I can get on the Internet.

But the 'psychology' is that under the above scenario, I might typicall go away mid May. When I come home in mid July, first thing I would look at the portfolio. Up 2% overall (perhaps). So I would say "OK. Nothing to write home about but that's fine...". But just imagine tha anguish I would have suffered watching the thing plummet by 9%, recover 2%, plummet another 5% before slowly clawing back to plus 2%. Exactly the same result, but not looking at them is somehow far less stressful!!!

The thing is, though, I'm long enough in the tooth to understand the psychology. On a "minus £3,000" day, the words on my lips are unrepeatable, but I sleep perfectly peacefully because I can handle it. On a "plus £3,000" day, I might have a grin on my face, but don't go and 'spend' it!. I know it is "paper money" until such time as I cash it in. All I care about is that by the end of the year, it will have accumulated with prior years to give 'reasonable' returns.

Talking of psychology, I think it interesting the way (say) a 7-week negative movement overly affects something that is, after all, a 10 year or more investment. But I know of no-one who would look at OP's graph and say "Look at that! 4% loss since beginning of June. That means you'll be down 30% by the end of the year...." And yet look at all the crass, idiotic, tripe that is written every day on these boards about house prices - especially after some obscure Estate Agent has reported a 0.1% negative monthly movement. The 'cyclical' movements in house prices are infinitely longer than similar cycles in stock markets, but I'm not sure they understand this. About as intelligent as me saying that because Aberdeen Asia Pacific has gone up 1.25% today, theis 'proves' my ISA fund is going to top £1m by Christmas! Turkeys!

jamesd

I also watch every day. It keeps me in touch with the routine volatility. Worst case I saw was a one day drop of 7% across a dozen or so funds in late 2008 and a one day gain of 8% later the same week. I also chart the value variation by fund and overall.